Australia Day: Indigenous people are told to 'get over it'. It's impossible

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Sounds familiar doesn't it...

Australia Day: Indigenous people are told to 'get over it'. It's impossible

When Aboriginal people boycott celebrations, we are told to move on. It's like the breathtaking legacy of disadvantage we have to endure did not exist

Every year, Australia tries to wash away its hidden history with displays of overt nationalism. On 26 January, Australians plant their union jacks in parks and beaches across the country, or on the faces of small children who are taught nothing about what the symbol means to those people this nation believed it conquered. For the majority of them, there has only been one name for the date: Australia day.

But for the First Peoples, there have been several. Survival day, invasion day, sovereignty day – each word loaded with the pain of 200 years of dispossession that has left Aboriginal people impoverished but, against the odds, remarkably strong.

My preferred name for 26 January, however, was one of its earliest – the day of mourning. On this day, First Nations peoples mourn the loss of land, of their children, of their wages, of their remains. They mourn the loss of control over their own future. Australians may want us to "get over it", to stop being so "sensitive". But then, why do we still set aside a day of remembrance on ANZAC day to commemorate those who risked their lives at war? And why don’t we acknowledge the brave Aboriginal fighters who sacrificed everything in the frontier wars?

A couple of years ago, I visited a site of extreme significance to my nation – the Darumbal people, whose homeland takes in Rockhampton in Central Queensland. About a 30 minute drive from the town, there is a mountain which was for decades known as Mt Wheeler; coincidentally the same name as the man, sir Frederick Wheeler, who in the 19th century chased a mob of Darumbal people up to the top and herded them off like sheep.

As I gazed up at that sheer cliff face, I imagined the pleading faces of a people who would never get justice for those crimes, although the evidence of their spilled blood is passed down by stories and even in official documents at the time. Today, that site is unmarked. Scattered rubbish left by campers litter its base. The Darumbal people renamed this sacred initiation site – Gawula. Australians are blind to the crimes that occurred there and yet, it's one massacre site amongst thousands across Australia. Do you know the ground you walk on? Would we treat the massacre site of any other people this way? Would we forget so easily?

This month, veteran journalist John Pilger released his new film Utopia in Australia. What he uncovers is an ignored truth. Despite the magnificent wealth of this country, its First Peoples have inherited a legacy of disadvantage that has compounded since the very first days of invasion. It’s compounded by government neglect and apathy, by watered down promises replacing land rights with “reconciliation” and the failure to recognise the ability of Aboriginal people to control their own lives, to grant them true self-determination.

Australia is locking up Aboriginal people at horrific rates, and yet stillcutting funding to Aboriginal legal aid services. It lets its media off fordemonising Aboriginal people, and even gives them a Logie for it. It shamefully allows the 10-year extension of one of the most racist policies in Australia’s history – the Northern Territory intervention – and claims its for "their" own good. It will not have any evidence of the frontier wars in the Australian War Memorial, but is content to represent them as gargoyles alongside wildlife on the walls of the national monument.

This shameful history is laid bare in Utopia, but the film also showcases the strength and resilience of Aboriginal people. One of my favourite quotes from Utopia is made by Anmatyerr elder Rosalie Kunoth Monks:

What amazes me is there is not that hatred, because that’s beneath our dignity to hate people. We have not got that… but us old people have to start thinking about righting the wrong, the awful wrong that continues to happen to us an ours.

That’s what we are fighting for.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/27/australia-day-indigenous-people-are-told-to-get-over-it-its-impossible

Edited September 2, 2014 by Hail Ming!

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

We'd never tell Jewish people to get over the Holocaust. Or the survivors of 9/11.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

We'd never tell Jewish people to get over the Holocaust. Or the survivors of 9/11.

It's only done here because the privileged majority, which is heavily reflected in government, finds the issues of the aboriginal population inconvenient to deal with. As far as they are concerned it's all ancient history, it doesn't matter that the aboriginal population live with the legacy of it and continue to be disadvantaged by it from one generation to the next.

Before long you've got a two tier society where the majority can't comprehend the experience of those in poverty and the only way that they can make sense of out of it is to suggest that the people are just lazy.

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

It's only done here because the privileged majority, which is heavily reflected in government, finds the issues of the aboriginal population inconvenient to deal with. As far as they are concerned it's all ancient history, it doesn't matter that the aboriginal population live with the legacy of it and continue to be disadvantaged by it from one generation to the next.

Before long you've got a two tier society where the majority can't comprehend the experience of those in poverty and the only way that they can make sense of out of it is to suggest that the people are just lazy.

Pretty much what we're told here.

[OnMyWayID 1,489]

We'd never tell Jewish people to get over the Holocaust. Or the survivors of 9/11.

Read some of the Hamas/Israel threads.

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

Read some of the Hamas/Israel threads.

I have, but reading the wall of text is a bit much.

[Karee 4,191]

We'd never tell Jewish people to get over the Holocaust. Or the survivors of 9/11.

Sad thing is that there's a certain govt. that hides behind that tragedy while they dish out human rights abuses themselves.

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

Sad thing is that there's a certain govt. that hides behind that tragedy while they dish out human rights abuses themselves.

Yep. Truly sad...

[spookyturtle 9,466]

We'd never tell Jewish people to get over the Holocaust. Or the survivors of 9/11.

We wouldn't, but most seemed to have moved on.

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

We wouldn't, but most seemed to have moved on.

The Jewish people here came from Hell and made it work. The survivors from 9/11 were Americans.

Edit: The ones who still have the marks and tattoos from the camps, I'd wager no one would tell them to get over it.

Edited September 2, 2014 by Su and Marvin

[spookyturtle 9,466]

The Jewish people here came from Hell and made it work. The survivors from 9/11 were Americans.

Edit: The ones who still have the marks and tattoos from the camps, I'd wager no one would tell them to get over it.

I actually knew someone who had the tattoo. His experience made him a very strong person. He moved forward and on but obviously you never forget that experience.

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

I have, but reading the wall of text is a bit much.

and both sides of the church, rose to their feet and shouted... Halleluiah brother

Edited September 3, 2014 by The Nature Boy

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

I actually knew someone who had the tattoo. His experience made him a very strong person. He moved forward and on but obviously you never forget that experience.

There aren't words for those who went through that.

and both sides of the church, rose to their feet and shouted... Halleluiah brother

I've tried to see what his passion is about, but someone needs to teach him shorthand or something.

[Karee 4,191]

I've tried to see what his passion is about, but someone needs to teach him shorthand or something.

If you figure it out, fill me in. Seems like someone who just found out about the copy/paste feature on his laptop and went crazy with it.

[Boiler 46,300]

The indigenous people of Rotherham have similar issues.